Sean, a friend of John’s, sent us a new interview he did with Maks Chmerkovskiy for his site The TV Page. Sean asks Maks all kinds of cool questions about guest judging Dancing With The Stars, if he misses dancing, what kind of judge he will make, etc. Sean also explores the possibility of Maks taking on judging Dancing With The Stars as a full time gig. This is such a great interview. Below are a couple of takes.

“It’s kind of cool that this has happened now,” he tells TheTVPage.com. “For the past two seasons there has been a lot of talk that maybe [the show and I] were on bad terms and whatever. So it was awesome to get this call and hopefully put all the rumors to rest.”

The controversial — and sometimes hot-tempered — dancer left the ballroom after the show’s “all star” season in 2012. In 13 tries, he reached the final round four times and was runner-up twice.

“I honestly never thought that I would have such a hard time letting go of dancing,” Maks admits. “But that is what happened. I may have sounded a certain way while I was [on the show], but then when some time passed and things calmed down and I got the time to do some other things that I was never able to do before because I never had the time, all of a sudden I started missing it. Now the show is coming in and asking me to try myself at the next logical stage of my career. And this is the next logical step. I am excited just for the opportunity to prove to myself that I can do it.”

During his thirteen seasons on the show, Maks, 33, often clashed with judges Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba.

“We all know how I was critical sometimes of the way they work and the things they say and how they were saying it,” he says. “This is an opportunity for me to sit in that spot and try to do, not necessarily better — because I am not saying they are doing a bad job — but to be the type of judge that I have wanted them to be. I am not a hypocrite. I have got to do what I criticized them for…and do it better.”

What kind of judge will you be?
In acting they tell you not to try to mimic somebody else’s voice and intonations, but to be you and try to find the best version of you. It is the same way here. I am just going be me — but older and wiser. And remembering that this is the semifinal and at this point everyone is exhausted and really going on fumes energy-wise. So maybe Bill Engvall isn’t the best dancer that is left out there, but he puts so much effort into what he does that it has to be recognized. At the same time, I gotta also understand that for me, I want to see the best dancer win. So there are people who are left who are in amazing hands whose pros have won it — some of them multiple times. I am just excited to see what the couples bring and I will pretty much decide on the spot. I have never been fake and I have never been scripted, so that is one thing you can expect: genuine me. My opinions and honest in everything that I say.

The obvious question now is “Will this lead to a full time judging job next year?
To be honest with you, I am focused on just Monday. I am trying to do the best job I can and we will go from there. I will continue to do the things I have already been doing. Whether it leads to full time anything is not up to me and it is not the conversation for right now because there is literally no conversation like that happening. Maybe the powers that be are thinking something, but I don’t know.

You can read much more of this new fascinating interview at this link. Let us know what you think and THANKS SEAN for sending this our way!

I'm a fashion and music fan....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. One of my favorite dancing quotes at the moment: "No matter what, nobody can take away the dance you've already had...." ~Gleb Savchenko . For fun music and dance mixes, visit WilUnleashed Soundcloud.

As long as he is “fair”, I’ll be ok with it. Whether he will be fair or not,….well, all eyes on Monday night. I’d especially love it and gain a lot of respect back if he judges Leah the way she should be judged despite what the other three do.

I agree Sandy. I tend to doubt this, in any case. Taking a full time judging job on DWTS would pretty much derail any serious acting ambitions he has, I think. It’s one thing to be creative and a choreographer – you can move on and up from that. But judging?? Those who can’t, judge.

I can’t figure fans out. Derek fans yesterday were hoping a phoney list for Celeb Apprentice with Derek’s name on it was true. WTF?? Don’t you want MORE for Derek, in particular?? All that talent going on another reality show?? I have to ask the same question to Maks fans – seriously?? Don’t you want MORE for him?? The man has acting ambitions (supposedly) – don’t you want him to work toward that?? Celeb Apprentice is at least a very short term gig (also a ridiculous wish by some fan somewhere, I’m sure), but full time judge on DWTS?? That’s a dead end job. Your face is on TV, your fans get to see you….but this will not lead to better opportunities.

If he can be fair, it might be a good thing. But I’m waiting until after Monday night. I agree Vogue, if he can be fair and score Leah like should have been all season, he would earn some of my respect back too. But with his good friend Tony as her partner, I don’t hold out much hope. Tony’s probably dancing around the studio with the grin on his face assuming he has no worries for tomorrow.

Will see how he has changed, didn’t like his attitude when he left. Will he be partial to Tony one of his best friends, they own a dance studio together. I thought he was very abusive to some of his partners, reminded me of my x.